The entire Yjantai Coalition political core had been flummoxed by what the crew of the Daring Leap had transmitted back. An alien survey vessel that had stumbled into the system to see if their planet was habitable, found them and now it wanted to arrange a political meeting with them, not to end their civilization and take over the planet? It was like something out of a reflective.

The politicians had reservations regarding the "Human", there were already rumours about how either the POI or UPG had set up the whole thing, and were now waiting to reveal it was they who were behind it, then they would then ruin Yjantai's reputation. Or that the whole week to make a response was so the aliens could travel here in force, and the Coalition should be making a space capable defense force not a diplomatic mission.

The reason for this doubt, how their entire space race came about, was due to how Glint politics and most of their interpersonal conflict resolution works. They don't resort to violence unless something terrible atrocity had been done and required justice. Instead all parties that got involved attempted to find a competition, and whomever won decided how to resolve the conflict. With nations, the loser would often be absorbed into the winner, becoming a vassal state or territory.

The Pan Oceanic Islands had consolidated their power by a series of ship building and races that solidified a near global oceanic trade network. They held almost every single island on Plinth that wasn't a part of the other two nations and held various coastal territories on the continental bodies but had the least amount of livable space of the three nations.

The UPG had the best engineers and manufacturers on Plinth by a targeted series of competitions with other manufacturing hubs on thier home soil. After which they used that sheer power to produce to absorb the leftover crumbs of the nations around them. They held the largest amount of land of the three nations.

The Yjantia Coalition grew by challenging nearby nations to scholarly studies, and how many "never done befores" they had done. The Coalition was split between three small continents surrounding the smallest ocean on Plinth. They started the space race hoping to absorb the POI, but the UPG got involved, and politics had muddled it up quite typically since science and "first evers" are rather hard to quantify who had done the more impressive one. And so it had become a race to see who got the most done before the end of the decided time period, 36 years, with the winner becoming the head of a global alliance. With that time frame, space became the relatively easier way of getting ahead in the competition.

The Daring Leap had been the Yjantai Coalition's gambit to make a decisive lead and potentially win the race altogether. The UPG had managed to get the first satellite in orbit, POI had converted several shipyards to build rockets with the goal of building a mining base on one of the two small moons of Plinth. But neither had left the influence of their home planet, Plinth. The mission to Kalina was to be the final nail in the space race. If it went qs planned Yjantai would go from being a coalition, to the United Nations of Plinth under Yjantai .

Yjantai pooled a massive amount of income into creating the Daring Leap, even helping the POI reach the moon in return for a quantity of "then to be" mined resources. As well as buying several UPG rockets to launch their own material and personnel into orbit.

Which leads back to the current mission, alien contact was not something they had thought of, or if it would count towards their achievements. The Yjantai Premiere had a very tough call to make. That was to reach out to the other nations. While this happened, the Daring Leap received a recall order, and began the long trip home, the crew in low spirits, knowing they'd most likely be making the trip all over again to deliver a message and meet with the human.

Eventually a decision was reached by the three nations, two months into the Daring Leap's journey home, about how to treat the contact in the competition as well as what thier answer to the humans would be. The Daring Leap was informed that they would be returning to re-equip then leave to give the Yjantai, POI, and UPG response to the human vessel.

-Above Grio'ux-

Eli busied himself as he waited, mining the required metals and materials to make either a communications satellite or repeating message buoy from the gas giant's ring. He listened as best he could, but the Glint had figured out he was monitoring their radio transmissions and had gone to landlines for any important information. Had there been anyone to watch Eli, they would have seen him "wringing" his manipulator arms in an old habit. His thoughts dwelling on the interaction with the Daring Leap.

*Did I really have to leave so abruptly like that? I know I have to keep quiet after the initial contact, but surely a little bit of chatting would have been fine? Maybe I rushed a bit too much. It's been so long since I dealt with biologicals in real time. Ugh this is why I opted to be a survey vessel not an android, I'm horrible with people.* At one point he was even distracted enough with his thoughts, he squeezed the rock hard enough to crush it.

Later in orbit around Plinth, the Daring Leap had refueled and received the reply to give. A sealed tube with each nation's emblem on it was among the restock, given to Saule.

"So I guess we've got another long haul back out to Grio'ux" Stuhkey said, his purple eyes bright and tan fur disheveled. The rest of the crew wasn't much better kept after the long trip.

Naytani responded as she opened a box of rations to stow, tossing a bar to Stuhkey.

"Getting sick of us already? I'd have thought someone who built radios would like to talk to the same people over and over."

"Well I'm glad we're heading back out there. I can't believe I didn't think to get the alien to tell us what Humans looked like, while he was still talking to us." Wensly said.

Wensly had perked up tremendously since they had been told to head back to the gas giant, his blue eyes beaming with enthusiasm. "I've made a list of what to ask him/her/it, when we get back there."

Captain Saule sat in the main flight seat, the tube holding the response in his hands, green eyes dim in thought. He listened to the crew chatter about Wensly's list of questions, what was a dumb question and what would get the most information. His thoughts drifted about what the tube held, and how it would change their lives again, no matter what it said.

A flick against his ear broke his reverie, Naytani had floated over to him, a ration in hand.

"Dried mealstuff of indeterminate flavour?" She offered. "I know you've been holding back, to be a good captain. Just don't let whatever your thinking of burrow you out." With a grip on his shoulder to steady herself, she seated herself beside him.

Stretching, Saule rubbed his neck. "Thanks Nayt, I appreciate the thought. This mission has been draining."

With that, he stowed the tube and started the process of getting back out to Grio'ux. Stuhkey and Wensly in the back, making predictions on what the humans looked like, with Naytani on Saule's left.